EU leaders on Friday said the EU "welcomes with favour and is ready to support the development of the accord signed between Italy and Libya on February 2" by Italian authorities and Libyan Premier Fayez al-Serraj, according to a joint statement issued by the leaders at the Valletta summit on immigration.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni said after the summit that the European Council had "very much appreciated" Italy's migrant deal with Libya, calling it "the opening of a window of opportunity on which Italy will work and invest, but it is very important that the EU should also work and invest, and it will do that with additional resources which Juncker and Mogherini explicitly talked about".
"We must all be aware that it is a first step," he warned, however. "The internationally recognised Libyan government does not have the same control as Erdogan, to make a comparison. You can't expect the situation to suddenly change".
Gentiloni had said on arrival at the informal EU summit on migrants in Malta that "the accord with Libya opens a new chapter" and Italy "has done its part, now we expected resources and commitment from the European Union". EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherni said she expected "very strong backing" for the accord from the summit and said Libyan Premier Fayez al Serraj "will be in Brussels again today to discuss further European support for these measures".
Gentiloni said Thursday was "an important day for relations between Italy and Libya" after he signed a cooperation agreement with al-Serraj in Rome. "Above all because it confirms that cooperation that has been taking place for months via the Italian government's commitment on many fronts".
European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that the goal of stemming the flow of migrants from Libya to Italy was "within reach" thanks to the cooperation agreement. Tusk said that after talking with Gentiloni, al-Serraj, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, the leaders had "agreed on the need to support Italy in this cooperation".
"Europe must be at Italy's side in sharing this responsibility," he added.
Tusk said after talks al Serraj Thursday that "it is time to close the (migrant) route from Libya to Italy".
He said "the EU has shown it is able to close the routes of irregular migration, as it has done in the eastern Mediterranean.
"I spoke at length with Gentiloni yesterday and I can assure you we can succeed. What is needed is the full determination to do so.
"We owe it first of all to those who suffer and risk their lives, but we also owe it to the Italians and all the Europeans".
The EU and Libya, Tusk observed, have a "common interest in reducing the number of irregular migrants risking their lives in the central Mediterranean".
He said that flow was "not sustainable either for the EU or for Libya" where "the traffickers are undermining the authority of the Libyan State for their profit".
In Friday's summit, he said, there will be "additional measures" to "more effectively combat the networks of traffickers and better manage the migratory flows".
The EU, the European Council president added, "fully supports the Libyans' efforts to find a political accord and the United Nations' efforts for detente".
Tusk reiterated his "full support" for the national-unity government of Serraj but also issued an appeal to Serraj's opponents, stressing that "further results, in a constructive sense" are needed to involve "those in Libya who have not joined the new institutions".
After observing that the "humanitarian and security situation has devastated the prospects for the civilian population," Tusk said the EU "will continue to supply assistance to the Libyan people" but he also "urged all Libyans to put aside their differences so that the EU can make a greater commitment" to the troubled north African country.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
